WPSL expansion with 6 new teams in 2017: http://www.wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=2386 Charleston Fleet SC Little Rock Rangers Temecula FC Shreveport Rafters Louisiana Silicon Valley Legacy-W76 Virginia http://wydaily.com/2016/07/10/sport...s-womens-premier-soccer-league-team-for-2017/
So there's an article about the Breakers Reserves' division championship, which mentions that they'll be playing either the Philly Fever or the Penn Fusion, both in Philly whichever one happens. So NE is playing Tri-State, which I guess means the Mid-Atl champion will either play the Colonial champion, or double-up division team comes from NE/Tri-State. Anyway, so I guess that's two of the four main regions partially covered. For everyone else... ---NW won by Sounders Women ---NorCal won by CA Storm ---Coastal won by Beach FC (standings page is messed up, thinks Villa has played 11 games) ---PacSouth won by SD Sealions So the West eventually plays out almost exactly as you would've expected - or, at least how I expected: ---SW won by FC Dallas ---Heartland won by Red Stars Reserves (it's not on the WPSL schedule or standings pages, but the Stars and Menace drew on Saturday, giving the Red Stars the H2H tiebreak, though that would be moot if the Red Stars Reserves got a least a point from the Quad City Eagles on Sunday, a game which I can't find info on ANYWHERE right now) ---Valley won by Dayton Dutch Lions ---Great Lakes won by Motor City, at least according to the current standings page which apparently has them in first on tiebreak over the Michigan Chill Again, played out almost exactly as expected. I didn't call the SW("Big Sky") winner back when I made my predictions: but I don't think FCD was on the WPSL site at that point anyway (though even then I would've been wrong b/c the TX Spurs were 2nd, OKCFC 3rd).
WPSL @WPSL 2h2 hours ago WPSL Central Conference Playoff this weekend in Chicago. @DaytonDutchLion vs @chicagoredstars reserves @chillsoccerWPSL vs @FCDwomen
Chill soccer... I guess WPSL needs to clarify their tiebreak procedures, b/c that's not team on top of the standings page. =-/
The Chill defeated Motor City head-to-head (one win, one draw). The Chill win the tie-break. (The standings pages usually calculate this via GD - GF, and must be manually corrected.) If you went to the Documents tab on WPSL, then the By-Laws section: http://www.wpsl.info/docs/index.php?tid=75 Law A6 Tie in Standings In case of a tie in the Final League Standings the following tiebreaker will be used. Head to head record between the teams. Goal difference between the teams. Goal difference within the Division. Most goals scored within League. Least goals scored against within League. Tiebreaker to be determined by a coin toss.
And that's a problem... If there's any automation in the standings page at all (i.e. it's not 100% manual) then the tiebreaking procedure should be built in to the automation. You have the same issue with the UWS tiebreak info. NWSL is *almost* as bad, but at least they have a link to the Competition Rules and Regulations right on the front page in the directory at the footer - so there's no direct connection to the standings page still, but at least it's not completely buried. All three big men's leagues have the tiebreak procedure listed or at least linked directly from the standings page, which makes so much more sense. - - - - - Anyway, more playoff info: WPSL has posted a news article and added to the schedule the West region's playoffs. No surprise that Zanelli's own Storm squad are hosting the four-team playoff, with 7/23 seeing Storm vs SeaLions and Sounders vs BeachFC. Regional final played the next day. As for the North region, I got an e-mail from the Spirit today saying that they will be playing the Penn Fusion, which kinda goes against the article that WPSL posted the other day about the Breakers: Granted, in theory you could have the Tri-State division have both #1 and #2 in the playoffs, but it makes no sense at all for them to play the NE and Colonial champions when the Colonial division is farther south than the Mid-Atl division in... So once again, something is seriously messed up in WPSL-land. @StarCityFan , any clarification you know of? =EDIT= Here, answered my own question.... From the Penn Fusion site: So WPSL's original article on who the Breakers would play was just wrong. Figures! X-D
Actually, if you read the article carefully, it states where they will be playing, not who they will be playing. (I jumped to the same conclusion.) Anyhow, the setup for the East Conference is that each division hosts the final four in successive years. (I was told by a Charge rep that the WPSL was tired of the Charge hosting it all the time.) Last year, New England hosted. This year, it's Tri-State. Next year it will be Mid-Atlantic, then Colonial if there's still a Colonial.
And - just for the hell of it, apparently - the Silverbacks are hosting Lake Norman on Saturday, something known only to those who follow their Twitter feed.
The WPSL making it up as they go along. And Zanelli setting himself up with the playoffs. No surprises - like has already been stated. Although I thought after last year's playoffs debacle they would step up this year. Nope. Not in Zanelli's world view. Its ironic in the fact that the reason why he left the W-League many years ago was over wonky playoff scheduling. The circle is complete, I guess. I haven't checked in on the website too much this year but I found a passage in this release (http://wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=2379) about the new Reno team very interesting... "The WPSL League features 100 plus teams from across the nation and is the oldest and most consistent venue for top level women’s soccer in America with amateur, collegiate, semi pro and professional players. It is regarded as the essential development league for players hoping to play in the newly formed United Women’s Soccer league (UWS) and eventually the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), which is the top professional women’s league in the country." The WPSL is a developmental league for UWS? Wow.
To be fair, we haven't seen any cancellations or sudden shifts of a division between regions like we did last year. And the Breakers thing, as SCF pointed out, was just us misreading an admittedly ambiguous statement. Unless teams/regions drop out last-minute again, I think this year is a step up. Still not great to have teams learn their playoff assignments less than a week beforehand, but not the fiasco of last year either. Dang... that's definitely interesting! No similar mentions anywhere else on the site yet, but it might be that the inability to mobilize teams for a revival of WPSL Elite has made the leadership realize WPSL can't support an effective DII league. Would be kinda funny to think that some of the weaker WPSL teams were against a revival of WPSL Elite because they wanted to still claim DII and couldn't if Elite existed between them and NWSL, only to have leadership start calling WPSL as tertiary to UWS anyway. X-D Those teams should've realized they couldn't claim to be DII forever if they weren't going to actually try operating a DII organization!
The Chicago red Stars Reserves are hosting the WPSL Midwest Regionals this Saturday in Oak Brook. I plan to go. Does anyone know who the other 3 teams are?
Thanks. So here is a little tid-bit: FC Dallas Women are coached by Ben Waldrum, son of Randy Waldrum, who will also be coaching Houston Dash that night in Chicago against the Red Stars. I wonder if Randy will be at the WPSL game?
Reminds of 2011 when the Big Sky playoffs were cancelled entirely due to college players going back to school. Though now my question is this: if this "conference" playoff is just Carolinas vs Southeast, what happened to the Sunshine division? Have they just been preemptively left out as a consequence of backing out last year? (Also: what happened with the Elite Cobras? I'm guessing the lost the divisional playoffs, but the latest article on their website is from before the divisional playoffs, and that Silverbacks thing said Norman beat Oak City in the Carolinas championship despite that being a 2v3 matchup...)
Go to the games, stay for the fair. (or, vice versa): http://www.wpsl.info/news/index.php?cat=1&id=2389 "All $12 ticket purchases give fans access to the day's game(s) AND the California State Fair!"
Playoff updates I can see on Twitter right now: SOUTH: Atlanta Silverbacks Women 2-1 Lake Norman WEST: SD SeaLions 2-0 CA Storm WEST: Sounders Women 2-0 Beach FC [halftime] NORTH: Breakers Reserves 3-0 NYAC NORTH: Spirit Reserves v. Penn Fusion TBP CENTRAL: Red Stars Reserves 4-0 Dayton Dutch Lions CENTRAL: MI Chill v. FCD Women TBP
Sounders Women 2, Beach FC 1. Spirit Reserves 3, Penn Fusion 1. FCD Women 1, MI Chill 0 (per CRS Tweet).
WPSL @WPSL Western Region Championship game today features the @SDSeaLions against the @SoundersWomen. 2h Midwest Conference Championship game today features@FCDwomen vs @chicagoredstars reserves at 2:30pm. BostonBreakers @BostonBreakers 2h TODAY: Breakers Reserves face off against @WSReserves in the@WPSL Northeast Championship Final. Kick off 4pm in PA.#PathwayToPro #NWSL FCDwomen @FCDwomen 14h After 4.5 hours we finally have a final! @FCDwomen 1,@chillsoccerWPSL 0 Next up Chicago Red Star Reserves tomorrow in the final @WPSL Silverbacks Women @SilverbacksWmn 19h We are off to Columbus for the Final Four!
KC Courage WPSL @KCCourageSoccer Congrats to the CRS reserves for WPSL Midwest Region back-to-back titles and advancing to the WPSL Final Four again! pic.twitter.com/ckms8wwkOn
San Diego Sea Lions 3-2 Seattle Sounders Women 14' 1-0 Everett (not on roster page?) (#12 Angelina Hix) 17' 1-1 #11 Brianna Hooks 25' 1-2 #12 Kaycie Tillman 80' 2-2 #19 Rosie Tantillo 85' 3-2 #12 Angelina Hix (#11 Cassie Callahan) FT 3-2.
This year's teams are: West: San Diego Sea Lions (defeated Sounders Women) Central: Chicago Red Stars Reserves (defeated FC Dallas Women) South: Atlanta Silverbacks Women (defeated Lake Norman) East: Washington Spirit Reserves (defeated Boston Breakers Reserves) The final four is in Columbus, OH. Not sure about the semifinals, but the final will definitely be livestreamed.